The graduate student experience at McGill

Tag: Crystal Ernst

A few people have noticed that I have been entirely silent on this blog for quite some time. Others have noticed that I’ve been absent from my personal blog as well as Facebook, Twitter – pretty much all of my usual online haunts – since the fall. Their somewhat apprehensive inquiries – “How are you… Read More The conversations we don’t have (but should)

Warning: this post contains angst. The third year of my PhD work is quickly coming to a close (Omg. Aak. Eeek.) I’ve been thinking a lot about post-docs. About the type of research I want to do and the type of researcher I want to become in the long run. About fellowships and funding applications. About finding… Read More Where?

This is a recycled post from my personal blog, The Bug Geek. I’m sharing it here now because it’s rather timely for me: I’m preparing a talk on this subject, with an emphasis on its relevance to grad students, for the Entomological Society of Canada annual meeting in about two weeks; it’s part of a… Read More Why I spend so much time on the internet

One professional philosophy that I’ve tried very hard to embrace is, “be open to the possibility of doing new things or taking on new responsibilities”: a new collaboration, a new side-project, a new outreach activity, a new workshop. In other words, to say, “yes” whenever possible. I’ve observed a trend towards grad students saying, “I… Read More Yes or no?

In my field, the first few months of the fall term represent “conference season”. Last year I went to my first entomology conference as a PhD student. This year I’m upping the ante considerably: I’m giving a total of 4 talks at three conferences (one is provincial, one national and one international). Larger conferences are… Read More Getting the most out of academic conferences

Now that the “oooh, aaaah” part of my field work is out of the way, let’s talk research, shall we? My PhD work is a component of a research program called the Northern Biodiversity Program. It involves several professors from several universities, about a dozen grad students, a postdoctoral researcher, and a multitude of private… Read More Field season report #2: the research

I’m back from my adventures in the breathtakingly beautiful Yukon territory, and can now proudly claim to have survived a trek up and down the infamous Dempster Highway! The science was awesome and the the team I worked with was incredible, but first I just want to share the tourist-ey bits of my trip. We… Read More Field season report #1: the beauty

I can honestly say that I love 95% of my work, 95% of the time. Doing Science makes me feel happy and satisfied, and I can’t imagine doing anything else as a career. That said, if science is my cake, then this is the time of year is the icing on top – it’s field… Read More If science is cake, then this is the icing…